There are some books that I’ve read in which I had a feeling of where it was going, but then, it went in a different direction. Today’s subject, the 1994 novel The Riders by Tim Winton, did just that. At first, I thought it was going to be Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? with less geography and more drama. However, the book turned out to be an intriguing character study of a man descending into madness and commentary on if people truly know the ones they love even if it can be frustrating at times.
The Riders is about a father and a daughter’s journey searching for a mother. After traveling throughout Europe for two years, Fred Scully and his wife Jennifer end up in Ireland, and on a whim, they purchase an old cottage, which stands in the shadow of a castle. Scully spends weeks renovating the place, while Jennifer goes back to Australia to liquidate their assets. When he arrives at the Shannon Airport to pick up her and their seven-year-old daughter Billie, only the girl gets off the plane. There is no explanation as to why Jennifer vanished. Soon, Scully’s life falls to pieces as he and Billie look for her throughout Europe.
Part of what made me truly understand the novel is that it utilizes the Norse myth of the Wild Hunt. For those who don’t know, the Wild Hunt is a legend about a ghostly leader and their group of hunters flying through the cold, windy, and stormy night during the winter solstice. Anyone who passed them by was said to have been carried away and dropped off at a location miles away. The Riders uses this myth as a reminder of Scully and his family’s wandering spirit as well as to foreshadow his doom. A group of riders and their horses first show up in the beginning when Scully is preparing the cottage for Jennifer and Billie’s arrival. Then, they come back when he and Billie watch some Romani boys ride their stallions from the train while they’re going to France. Finally, they see the riders once more when they finally arrive back in Ireland.
In addition, the characters are fascinating. Scully is an Australian man who loves his wife so much that he follows her to the ends of the earth for her. But once Jennifer doesn’t show up at the airport, he stops at nothing to find her. During that search, he looks back at their relationship, specifically the good times in Athens, the fights in Paris, and how he sacrificed everything so she could be a painter. He realizes that he may not have known her at all even though they were married for seven years. Scully represents the type of person who puts all of their identity into their partner.
Billie is Scully and Jennifer’s daughter. At first, readers are told that she is a tough cookie who got into fights with classmates at the schools she was at and doesn’t follow the rules. When she gets off the plane, she refuses to speak. Scully wants to know why Billie came alone, but he respects that she is too traumatized to say anything. Eventually, she regains her voice, yet she never reveals what happened to her mom. Instead, she assists her dad as much as she can even if it means committing some crimes like stealing money. I found it interesting that she saw him as Quasimodo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo because of how helpless he becomes during the course of the book.
Throughout, I wanted to know at least something about Jennifer. All we really get from Scully is that she’s got great legs and came from a well-to-do family. I’m not asking the book to spell out the reason why Jennifer didn’t come to Ireland, but I wanted more clues as to what she was feeling. The book could’ve done that and have Scully not realizing it until the very last minute. It wouldn’t have ruined the novel’s integrity.
As for pacing, it starts off slow with Scully working on the cottage in Ireland and the book taking its time to establish the main characters. This sluggishness didn’t bother me since the novel did a good job with keeping my interest, especially with the recurring telegram from Jennifer telling Scully when she and Billie will arrive. It also helps that a postman named Pete was a good supporting character to Scully. In fact, Pete is genuinely invested in Scully’s life in Ireland since he has an alcoholic brother who’s going through a downward spiral. It’s such a wonderful foreshadowing of the main character’s fate. It takes about 90 pages for the main event at the airport to occur. Afterwards, the pacing picks up pretty quickly.
For most readers, much of the book’s enjoyment depends on how much they can tolerate Scully and his actions. He makes some incredibly stupid choices while on the journey. For starters, Billie gets bitten by a dog while they’re in Athens. Instead of visiting a doctor, Scully tries to heal the wound himself. Then, after he and Billie visit his friend Alex while they’re in Athens, the latter is found dead. Police reasonably want to ask Scully some questions about it. He, who had nothing to do with Alex’s death, responds to this in the most logical way possible: by leaving the country. At the same time, these actions ring true for a man whose life is falling apart. He’s not going to think straight while panicking about finding his loved one.
The Riders by Tim Winton defied my expectations on what it was going to be in a good way. The use of the Wild Hunt myth helps it to stand out from other stories about missing persons and the looming sense of doom. Also, most of the characters are three dimensional and have clear reasons as to why they do what they do. I recommend this novel to those who love missing people stories, books set in Europe, and most importantly, can withstand a certain amount of stupidity that comes from Scully’s actions.
Before I go, the latest episode of the Adapt Me Podcast is up now. Guest Alex Aaron and I discuss how we would adapt this book. The link will be here.
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Book Reviews by a Chick Who Reads Everything 